In the early 2000s, a coal-mining boom led the local government to throw money at urban development in the hopes of creating a new epicenter of culture, economy, and politics.

Ordos New Town, also known as Kangbashi, would hold 1 million people and be known for its massive abstract architecture projects, residential towers, and state-of-the-art sports venues. (Developers later scaled back the concept city to accommodate 300,000 people.)

But high property taxes and poor construction deterred people from settling in Ordos. In 2016, some 100,000 people lived and worked there — leaving the city two-thirds empty.

"The whole city feels like a post-apocalyptic space station straight out of a science fiction movie," says the photographer Raphael Olivier, who captured the city in a series titled "Ordos — A Failed Utopia."

Olivier shared some of his spectacular images with us. You can check out more on his website.

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Located in the remote province of Inner Mongolia, Ordos sits on one-sixth of China's coal reserves — making it an attractive center for development.

In the late '90s and early 2000s, private mining companies got the rights to dig into those deposits. The influx of new business generated lots of tax revenue.

"The local government decided to build this overly ambitious city from scratch," Olivier told Business Insider. In 2005, it began investing hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate and infrastructure.

High schools with good reputations were moved to Ordos as well. Empty apartment buildings were converted into dormitories that now house students.

As a result of these efforts, the Ordos population soared to 100,000. However, it's difficult to nail down accurate census data. Some speculate the government hides the numbers to cover up its urban-planning disaster.

Still, Ordos isn't close to meeting its capacity.

Raphael Olivier

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Olivier attributes the city's spectacular failure to the government's "build it and the people will come" attitude. It represents a pervasive problem in China, where officials hope to more than double the country's urban population by 2020.

Cities like Ordos spring from rural areas to accommodate the masses — but the masses don't always come. "This phenomenon is really a cancer for the development of this country," Olivier said, "and a serious threat to the Chinese economy."